JPS60200520A - Reaction processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make the reaction processing highly effective while preventing any foreign matter from adhering to a body to be processed by a method wherein a reaction chamber is vertically extended while several preparatory chambers connected in series through the intermediary of gate valves are disposed in a row to make a piece to be processed get in and out of the reaction chamber. CONSTITUTION:A main preparatory chamber 5, a loading preparatory chamber 6 and an unloading preparatory chamber 7 with gate valves 8-11, are provided to set up a wafer in a reaction tube 1 or to prevent atmosphere from entering into the reaction tube 1 when the wafer is taken out of said tube 1. Therefore, metal oxidation on wafer etc. may be prevented while preventing any foreign matter in atmosphere from adhering to the wafer. Besides, gas may flow downward due to an outlet 1b fixed to lower part preventing any foreign matter in the reaction tube 1 from adhering to the surface of wafer. Moreover, the fixing space may be reduced due to the vertical constitution of reaction tube 1.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Technical Field] The present invention relates to a reaction processing apparatus, and in particular to a technique that is effective when applied to a CVD apparatus that performs vapor phase growth while keeping the inside of a reaction chamber in a sealed state. Background Art] In the manufacture of semiconductor devices, it is essential to use reaction processing equipment to form thin films on the surface of semiconductor wafers by vapor phase growth technology using reactive gases. For this reason, various reaction processing equipment are used. being developed. With the miniaturization of semiconductor devices in recent years, metals such as tungsten (W) and molybdenum (Mo), which have low electrical resistance and high melting points,
As it becomes necessary to apply titanium (T), etc. and metal compounds mainly composed of these metals to the electrodes and wiring of semiconductor devices, the reaction chamber must be kept in order to prevent oxidation of the metal film during reaction processing. A reaction treatment device will also be required to keep the reactor in a sealed state, shutting it off from the outside air.

For this reason, in the past, wafer collapse in the reaction chamber
-nVc sealed spell and JisehF trick are attached, and after storing the wafer in the reaction chamber, the reaction chamber is sealed with this lid, so that the wafer does not come into contact with oxygen from the outside air during reaction processing inside the reaction chamber. The device is configured as follows (qdf
However, with such a configuration, it is necessary to open and close the lid each time a wafer is stored in or taken out from the reaction chamber. Therefore, it is necessary to reduce the pressure inside the reaction chamber and evacuate it for each cycle of processing, resulting in poor processing efficiency and foreign matter such as dust in the outside air easily entering the reaction chamber, causing defects on the wafer surface. 〇 Another conventional reactor is the newly developed horizontal reactor in which quartz tubes are arranged horizontally (
Electronic monthly fee published by Kogyo Kenkyukai 1982 separate volume, 1982
Published on January 10th, pp. 75j1-81) However,
In this horizontal reactor, the length of the reactor becomes extremely long due to the processing of a large number of wafers, and as a result, the installation area becomes large, which is not desirable in terms of effective use of the factory site.

[Purpose of the invention]

An object of the present invention is to provide a reaction treatment apparatus that can perform reaction treatment with high efficiency.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a reaction processing apparatus that can prevent harmful foreign substances from adhering to objects to be processed.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a reaction processing apparatus that can realize a reduction in installation space.

The above and other objects and novel features of the present invention include:
It will become clear from the description of this specification and the accompanying drawings.

[Summary of the invention]

A brief overview of the typical inventions disclosed in this application is as follows. In other words, a reaction chamber is vertically extended, and gates are provided at the entrance and exit of the object to be processed. By arranging a plurality of preliminary chambers connected via valves and allowing the object to be processed to enter and exit the reaction chamber through these preliminary chambers, it is possible to ensure that outside air enters the reaction chamber. It prevents the formation of oxidation environments and foreign matter M'c on the metal film that is the gland, and increases the vacuum efficiency and processing efficiency under reduced pressure. It is possible to achieve a reduction in installation space.

[Embodiment 1] FIG. 1 shows an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a CVD apparatus for all semiconductor wafers, and FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view of the structure.

In the figure, l is a reaction tube (reaction chamber) made of a quartz tube, and extends in the vertical direction, that is, in the vertical direction, with the large diameter wafer outlet 1a'iz facing upward and the small diameter exhaust port 1b facing downward. It is set up.

A heater 2 is disposed around the reaction tube 1 so that the reaction tube 1 and its interior can be heated to a predetermined temperature. On the other hand, around the wafer outlet 1a, a 3-ft gas supply port is connected to a reactive gas source (not shown). In addition, the exhaust port 1b has an exhaust section 4 equipped with a built-in vacuum pump.
is connected to maintain the inside of the reaction tube 1 at a vacuum pressure of r9T.

ljf K -selfb iF', Fi degree IF1 wu-
The main preparatory chamber 5 is integrally attached to the hull l1m m r+ 1 a L &r, and a loader preparatory chamber 6 and an unloader preparatory chamber 7t each having gate valves 8 to 11 are installed in series on both sides of the main preparatory chamber 5 in the horizontal direction. Inside the main preliminary chamber 5, a wafer support frame 13 is integrally provided with an opening/closing lid 12 at the top.
By aligning the rod rack 14 protruding above the preliminary chamber 5 from the upper part of the support frame 13 with the pinion 15, the rod rack 14 and the wafer support frame 13 integrated therewith can be moved in the main direction by reversing the pinion 15 in the forward and reverse directions. It can move up and down across the preliminary chamber 5 and the reaction tube IK. Further, branch pipes 4a and 4b of the exhaust section 4 are connected to the loader preliminary chamber 6 and unloader preliminary chamber 7, respectively, so that the pressure in these preliminary chambers 6 and 7 is also controlled to be low.

On the other hand, a loader section 16 is provided on one side of the loader preliminary chamber 6, and a loader transport section 17 is provided inside, and a plurality of wafers W (total number) in a cartridge 18 loaded on the loader section 16 are provided. The wafer is transported at once through the loader preliminary chamber 6 to the main preliminary chamber 5, and placed on the wafer support h13 on f8.

Similarly, an unloader section 19 and an unloader transfer section 20 are provided on one side of the unloader preliminary chamber 7, and a wafer on the wafer support frame 13 in the main preliminary chamber 5 is passed through the unloader preliminary chamber 7 and onto the unloader section 19. Cartridge 2
It can be transported within 1.

That is, these loader transport section 17 and unloader transport section 20
As illustrated in FIGS. 3(4) to 3(Q) for the loader transport section 17, a plurality of wafer support plates 17b are connected to the rotating shaft 17a.
are arranged in a row in the vertical direction, and the rotating shaft 17a can be moved slightly up and down. Then, by rightward rotation and upward movement of the rotating shaft 17a shown in (5) to (C) in the figure, the loader section 16 is rotated.
The wafer W in the upper cartridge 18 is scooped onto the wafer support plate 17b, and by reversing the rotating shaft 17a, all the wafers W are placed in the loader preliminary chamber 6 as shown in the same figure.

Then rotate! By rotating 11117a and moving it slightly downward, the wafer W can be transferred to the wafer support frame 13 in the main preliminary chamber 5 as shown in FIGS.

If the rotation @117a is reversed, it will be restored to its normal position as shown in the same figure (O).It is exactly the same even if it enters the unloader conveyance section 20.In addition, each of the gate pulps 8.9, 10.11
Needless to say, these transport sections 17 and 20 are opened and closed in synchronization with each other.

According to the above configuration, the wafer W in the cartridge 18 installed in the loader section 16 is transported by the loader transport section 17.
First, the gate pulp 8 is opened and the pulp is carried into the loader preliminary chamber 6 (see FIG. 3 (4) to (c)).

Then, with this gate pulp 8 closed to isolate the loader preliminary chamber 6 from the outside air, the gate pulp 9 is opened this time, and the wafer W is transferred onto the wafer support frame 13 in the main preliminary chamber 5 (Fig. 3). ) ~ (5)). After moving the loader conveying section 17 back, the gate pulp 9 is closed, and this time the binion 15
When the wafer support frame 13 is operated, the wafer support frame 13 is moved down and the opening/closing lid 12 is opened.
shields the reaction tube 1, and the wafer W is housed in the reaction tube 1. Therefore, by supplying a predetermined gas from the gas supply port 3, evacuation from the exhaust port 1b to bring the inside of the reaction tube 1 to a predetermined vacuum gas pressure, and heating with the heater 2, the required CVD can be completed. Ru.

After completion of CVD, the wafer support frame 13 was moved up and returned to the main preliminary chamber 5, the gate pulp 10 was opened, and the wafer was transferred to the unloader preliminary chamber 7 by the unloader transport section 20, and the gate pulp 10 was closed. Later, the gate pulp 11 will be opened and stored in the cartridge 21 of the unloader section 19. Note that these wafers are transported into the main preliminary chamber 5 by the loader transport section 17 intermittently.

Therefore, according to this CVD apparatus, the main preparatory chamber 5. Load reserve room 6. Unload spare room 7
, it is possible to prevent atmospheric air from entering the reaction tube 1 when the wafer W is inserted into or taken out from the reaction tube 1.

This prevents oxygen from entering the reaction tube 1 and prevents oxidation of the metal (metal gate) in the wafer or the like. On the other hand, since outside air does not enter, foreign matter in the outside air does not enter, and adhesion of foreign matter to the wafer can be prevented. Furthermore, since the exhaust port 1b is located at the bottom of the reaction tube 1, the gas flow is from top to bottom, effectively preventing foreign matter from adhering to the surface of the wafer W even if foreign matter is present inside the reaction tube. can. Furthermore, since this CVD apparatus has the reaction tube 1 configured vertically in the vertical direction, the planar occupied area can be reduced, and the installation space can be reduced.

〔effect〕

(1) A pre-chamber is attached to the reaction chamber (reaction tube), and wafers are taken in and out of the reaction tube through this pre-chamber, which effectively prevents outside air from entering the reaction tube. It is possible to prevent metal oxidation due to the intrusion of metal.

(2) By providing a preliminary chamber, it is possible to prevent the intrusion of outside air, thereby preventing the intrusion of foreign matter, preventing foreign matter from adhering to the wafer, and thereby preventing the occurrence of defects.

(3) Since the reaction tube is vertical and the reaction gas supply port is provided at the top and the exhaust port is provided at the bottom, even if foreign matter occurs in the reaction tube, it can be quickly removed downward.
This makes it possible to more effectively prevent foreign matter from adhering to the cleaner.

(4) Since the reaction tubes are installed vertically in the vertical direction, the space occupied on the plane can be reduced, and the equipment area can be reduced.

Although the invention made by the present inventor has been specifically explained above based on Examples, it goes without saying that the present invention is not limited to the above Examples and can be modified in various ways without departing from the gist thereof. Nor. For example, if the main preparatory chamber and the unloader preparatory chamber are maintained at a temperature of about 100° C., the wafer after processing is more effectively cooled than when the wafer is directly taken out to the outside air.

However, various mechanisms other than those shown in the drawings can be used for the loader transport section, the unloader transport section, and the vertical movement mechanism of the wafer support frame.

[Application field]

In the above explanation, the invention made by the present inventor was mainly applied to a CVD apparatus for manufacturing semiconductor devices, which is the background field of application, but the present invention is not limited to this. It can also be applied to CVD equipment such as low pressure CVD equipment, plasma CVD equipment, etc.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an overall vertical sectional view of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view, and FIGS. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1...Reaction tube, 2...Heater, 3...Gas supply port, 4...Exhaust part, 5...Main preliminary chamber, 6...Loader preliminary chamber, 7...Unloader preliminary Chamber, 8 to 11...Gate pulp, 13...Wafer support frame, 16...Loader section, 17...Loader transport section, 18...Cartridge, 19...Unloader section, 20... - Unloader transport section, 21... Cartridge. Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 17 Procedural amendment (method) Indication of the case 1982 Patent Application No. 56032 Name of the invention Reaction processing device Amendment 11 cases and 1 yen Patent applicant name (5101 Hayashi type) Meeting 1 Hitachi Seisaku Shinshiki Physician Contents of the amendment in the brief description of the drawings in the specification subject to human amendment

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. Reaction chambers in which reaction treatment is carried out under reduced pressure are vertically arranged, and preliminary chambers are arranged in parallel at the entrances and exits of the reaction chambers for the objects to be treated. A reaction processing apparatus characterized in that a body is taken in and out of the reaction chamber through an opening between the reaction chamber and the outside through these preliminary chambers. 2. A patent claim in which a plurality of preliminary chambers are arranged side by side in the horizontal direction, the object to be processed is movable in the horizontal direction within the preliminary chamber, and a conveyance section that is movable in the vertical direction is attached to the reaction chamber. The reaction treatment apparatus according to item 1. 3. The reaction processing apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the reaction chamber has an entrance and exit port for the object to be processed facing upward and an internal exhaust port facing downward. 4. The reaction processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the preliminary chambers are connected to each other by gate valves, and the interior is evacuated.